San Francisco County Biographies
SETH MANN
Transcribed by Deana Schultz.
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
An active member of the San Francisco bar for over forty years, the
professional work of Seth MANN has been invested with a large measure of public
importance. He is one of the foremost experts on traffic law in the country,
and for many years has been attorney for the Traffic Bureau of the San Francisco
Chamber of Commerce.
He was born at Randolph, Massachusetts, June 29, 1860, of old Colonial New
England stock with Revolutionary ancestors on both sides. His father was of
English and his mother of Scotch-English descent. Levi MANN, his father was
born in Vermont, and descended from ancestors who settled at Scituate,
Massachusetts, prior to 1640. He married Abbie ALLEN SPEAR of Randolph,
Massachusetts, and daughter of Capt. Otis SPEAR, who took part in the Mexican
war in 1846-1848. Levi MANN and wife came to California in 1852 by the Panama
route, and he first engaged in business in mining and then in business in
Marysville, where he became prominent in official and political affairs.
Seth MANN was reared and educated in San Francisco, attending public school
there, and graduated Bachelor of Arts from the University of California in 1881.
He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1883, and since then has been
attorney for and traffic manager of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce since
1905. Among his important professional achievements was the work he did in
assisting in framing the public utility laws of California. During the World war
from July 1918 to March 1, 1920, he was a member of the Western Freight Traffic
Committee of the United States Railroad Administration. He served three years as
chairman of the special commission of the Merchant Marine of the National
Industrial Traffic League, which is the national shippers organization, with
headquarters at Chicago.
Through these organizations and other matters in which Mr. MANN has been
employed as an expert traffic attorney it is estimated that the people of
California have been saved a sum aggravating $25,000,000. This estimate
includes the reduction in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valley rail rates in
1912, amounting to $400,000 and continuous since then. The toll charges now
absorbed by the railroads effected a saving of $250,000 annually and free
switching charges between $250,000 and $300,000 annually.
Mr. MANN has been one of the prominent men of the democratic party in
California, serving as chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee from
1898 to 1900 and serving repeatedly on county and state central committees and
for twenty years attending as a delegate various county and state conventions.
He was a member of the state convention that nominated the late Franklin K. Lane
for governor. He acted as a personal representative of President Wilson on his
excursion to Alaska in the summer of 1913. Mr. MANN is a member of the San
Francisco California State and American Bar associations, belongs to the
Commonwealth Club, Bohemian Club, Commercial Club and Family Club of San
Francisco, Pacific Lodge No. 136 of the Masonic Order, Oakland Lodge No. 171,
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Chi Phi college fraternity.
He married Miss Maude L. DAULTON, of Oakland, California. She is a native
daughter. Her father, H.C. DAULTON, was a prominent citizen of Fresno and
Madera counties, a stock farmer, was supervisor of Fresno County, and DAULTON
Station was named for him. Mrs. MANN is of Revolutionary stock, English
descent. They have two children. The daughter, Dorothy married Innes RANDOLPH,
who is a representative of the General Motors Company and now lives at Calcutta,
India. They have two daughters, Ethel and Dorothy RANDOLPH. The son, Daulton
MANN, born April 15, 1893 is assistant manager of the Pacific Mail Steamship
Company. By his marriage to Ethel GREGG, daughter of Wellington GREGG, he has a
son Daulton Jr.
Source: "The San Francisco Bay Region" Vol. 3 page 222-223 by Bailey Millard.
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc. 1924.